


With a Twitch of His Nose

by flyingonfeatherlesswings



Category: Doctor Strange (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1950s, Domesticity, Gaslighting, M/M, Suburbia, Witches, housewives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-10-15 05:24:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10550788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingonfeatherlesswings/pseuds/flyingonfeatherlesswings
Summary: Nicodemus West's new neighbors are a bit too mysterious for his liking.Aka the Doctor Strange Bewitched AU that no one (well except meowrails) asked for.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hiiii there. I'm not dead! As some of you know I've been teaching English in South Korea and three weeks ago I got back to the US so I've been a bit busy and not in the writing mindset and my I dont have a laptop yet but then meowrails suggested a Bewitched AU and it took over my brain so I wanted to write something quickly. 
> 
> Bewitched is an American sitcom about a woman named Samantha who lives in a typical 1960s suburb with her husband Darrin. Samantha is secretly a witch and drags Darrin into misadventures that often include Samantha's colorful witch mother, Eudora. They have a very nosey neighbor named Gladys who is constantly trying to out Samantha but never has any proof so people don't believe her. 
> 
> In this AU, it's not really omegaverse, but could be if you wanted to, I love omegaverse but I know a lot of people are adverse to it. I thought it was interesting putting men into a 1950s/60s housewife position, which was mainly to keep with the aesthetics of the show.

Nicodemus West was delighted at first to hear that the Mordos would be moving in next door. The old bat that had lived there before wasn't any fun, had just wanted to play bridge all day. So when Nic had found out that it was it a young married couple of two men due to move in after the former owner’s children had moved her to a nursing home, he had been quite pleased. He had been up until that point the only househusband in the neighborhood. The housewives were kind enough, very willing to join in a jovial round of gossip, but Nic felt like he had never truly belonged in the group. So the news that the neighborhood was not only getting another male-male couple, but they would be living right next door to the Wests, was very good news indeed.

Well, at first, at least.

The moving van came one Saturday and Nic spent the whole afternoon glued to his window, shooing off his husband and their children when they tried to interrupt his snooping. There was a group of workers in jumpsuits being directed by a pair of clean-cut men that Nic could only assume were the Mordos. They both looked very handsome, in their late 30s. One was a black man, who assisted the moving men, joking with them and patting them on the back. The other was white, with a distinctive long face and wide-set light eyes, his facial hair shaved into a goatee. He was also in good spirits, but whenever he tried to pick up a box or item that might have been heavy, his husband, as Nic persumed, would trot over and take it from him. The other man responded with a smirk and an eye roll. 

Once the moving vans had left and the couple had gone inside to get settled in the late afternoon and Nic had jumped into action. He quickly threw together a pot roast for his own family’s dinner but he brought all the makings out for an apple pie also, drawing the attention of his family who had been settled in around the TV. 

“Oh honey, we having apple pie for dessert?” asked his husband Abel. Abel was a tall, portly man who worked as an accountant in a firm downtown. He liked the idea of a fresh baked pie, but Nic simply scoffed at him. 

“No, no, this is for our new neighbors! We want to be welcoming, don’t we?”

Abel hadn’t known Nic to be the most ‘welcoming’ of people, but he let it slide not wanting to awaken Nic’s wrath, and returned to the living room to rejoin their two sons watching a baseball game. 

Nic considered going over to the house next door once the pie was made and his family had eaten, but he decided that the couple would be too tired to entertain a new neighbor so he would have to wait until tomorrow. The next day, he kissed his husband goodbye and ushered his sons onto the school bus before he ran home. From his kitchen window he watched the handsome black man, now dressed sharply in a nice suit and carrying a briefcase, kiss the other man and then get into their cadillac, driving off to a day at work. 

Not wanting to appear too eager, Nic tried to busy himself around the house before going over to the Mordos. While making his sons’ beds and vacuuming though, he couldn’t help glancing at the clock. Time was moving much too slow for him. Finally though, the clock hit ten o’clock and he figured his had waited long enough. 

He flung off his apron and straightened his clothes, he had worn a nicer pair of slacks with a bright pastel shirt in order to appear friendlier, before grabbing the pie and heading out the door. In just a few brief steps he was knocking on his neighbor’s door. It didn’t take long for the other man to open it and greet Nic with a smile. 

“Hello!” greeted the man, cheerfully. 

“Well hello, new neighbor, my name is Nicodemus West, I live next door. Please call me Nic.”

“Hello Nic, my name is Stephen Mordo. I would shake your hand, but they seem preoccupied by a delicious looking pie. Can I take that from you? Would you like to come in and have some coffee?”

“Thank you that would be delightful!”

Nic peaked around the living room as he was led back into the kitchen. All of the houses on the block looked similar and the layout of the house was almost identical to his own, so he was more interested in the belongings of his new neighbors. Most everything was still in boxes, but Nic did notice a few interesting looking knick knacks strewn about he would like to take a closer look at. He did notice with a pang of jealousy that they had a newer model television though. 

Nic commented on the TV as they walked by and Stephen laughed, “I don’t much care for TV but Karl likes keeping up with the news and such.” 

“Oh Karl is the name of your husband?” asked Nic as he took the chair at the modest round kitchen table that Stephen offered. 

Stephen placed the pie on the counter and started the coffee maker and he got out small plates and mugs. “Yes, he works as a history professor at the local university.”

“So you are new to town?” 

“In a way,” said Stephen taking out a knife to cut the pie, “We lived in the city you see, we only recently got married so we moved out to the suburbs. The American dream and all that, right?” As Stephen moved to cut the pie though, Nic could see his hand start to shake and it was then he noticed that Stephen’s hands were covered into straight surgical scars running down each finger. 

“Oh let me help you with that!” said Nic jumping up and taking the knife from Stephen. He thought Stephen would volunteer an explanation for the scars and his tremor but the other man just moved to pour the coffee. 

“So what does your husband do?” asked Stephen and Nic’s attention was drawn onto telling him about his family and bragging a bit about his boys’ achievements. “Do you want children, Stephen?” asked Nic. Stephen merely smiled and gave a nod, “That’s part of moving out here, I heard there’s great schools nearby.”

They continued to chat amicably, keeping the conversation light, until they had finished their pieces of pie and two cups of coffee. Stephen reached to take Nic’s mug, which had some cold coffee left in it, but his hand spasmed and the mug smashed to the floor, splashing Nic’s arm a bit in the process. Luckily he wasn’t wearing long sleeves so his clothes were safe.

“Oh I’m sorry! There’s a bathroom in the hallway if you want to wash off your arm. I’ll get this cleaned up but be careful of the glass. “

Nic visited the bathroom, which he was disappointed to see was still bare and contained nothing he could snoop into, and he washed off his arm. He walked back into the kitchen, stopping some to glance at a the few pictures on the wall from the Mordos’ wedding. The two men smiling brightly at the camera in what looked to be a courthouse. 

Stephen had cleaned up the mess in Nic’s absence and there was no evidence that the accident had even taken place. Nic was impressed Stephen had cleaned up so quickly and noticed that the man was now loading the dishwasher. Nic felt another pang of jealousy at the sight of the dishwasher, an accessory he could not afford, until he noticed something peculiar. Inside the rack of the dishwasher was sitting two mugs, identical to the two mugs they had just used. Nic hadn’t see any other matching mugs in the cabinet when Stephen had gotten them out, and he was looking, and there should be only mug in the dishwasher, the other being in pieces in the trash. 

Growing curious, Nic feigned a loud sniff and asked Stephen if he could spare a tissue. Stephen fetched him one and Nic pretended to blow his nose and gave his thanks. When he went to throw the tissue away though, he peered into the trash can in the corner of the kitchen and found no pieces of mug. How curious. 

Nic thanked Stephen for his time and left him with the pie, telling him to say hello to his husband for him. “We should get together soon,” said Nic. 

“Yes, let’s.” said Stephen with a smile. 

Nic returned home a bit perplexed. His new neighbor was friendly if not a bit mysterious. And the incident with the mug was strange…

But Nicodemus West quickly found that there were a few strange things about Stephen Mordo.

xxxx

One very strange thing was the frequent visits of Stephen’s mother. At least she introduced herself as such the one time Nic met her, though he couldn’t really see the resemblance. She was a tall woman who had a bald head (Nic tried to subtly ask about her lack of hair one day but was met with a blank stare from Stephen) that she sometimes covered in brightly colored scarves that matched her brightly colored robes she wore. And she never wore shoes, floating around her son and son-in-law’s house in bare feet like she owned the place. If her appearance wasn’t enough to set her apart from the rest of the neighborhood, her pleasant English accent raised even more eyebrows. 

From his spying, Nic could tell that Karl, whom Nic had been introduced to and found to be a kind and charming man, if not a bit mysterious in his own right due to an unplaceable accent, had a strained relationship with his mother-in-law. Nic had watched them argue once through his kitchen window, which looked into their living room. Karl had marched around the room, obviously frustrated and gesturing widely while the woman lounged on their sofa with a smug look on her face. Stephen sat in armchair, looking apologetic to his husband. At point the he must have noticed the curtains were open and he looked out the window, making eye contact with Nic for half a second before Nic focused his eyes back down on the dishes he was washing. 

It wouldn’t have mattered though since the curtains closed shut in an instant even though none of the occupants were anywhere near the windows. 

xxxx

The peculiarities of the Mordos continued to grow and grow. One day Nic smugly noticed their flowers were growing faster than the Mordos’ and the Wests would have the most vibrant front yard in the neighborhood. That was until later he saw Stephen out in his own front yard regarding his lack of flowers while Nic got the mail. He watched Stephen stare at the space where his husband had planted some flowers a few days before before he made a distinct twitching motion with his nose and he went inside. Nic had shrugged it off until the next morning when he was wishing his husband goodbye and he saw his neighbors’ yard. 

“Abel! Their yard!” exclaimed Nic.

Abel put his briefcase in the passenger seat of their car and looked over into his neighbor’s yard. Where yesterday there had just been dirt, not even sprouts, there were tulips and petunias in full bloom. “Oh yes, look at that, lovely. Spring has sprung.”

“No Abel, this can’t be,” said Nic shaking his head, “Yesterday there was nothing!”

“Must be some new special formula they added to their soil,” answered Abel, “I don’t know why you look so shocked.”

“Yes, maybe that’s it,” muttered Nic, not wanting to make his husband late over some flowers. 

The moments like this kept happening though. One day, Nic noticed with disdain that the clothes on the line had gotten soaked during a brief summer storm. He glanced over at the Mordos’ backyard to see Stephen come out with a basket on his hip and regard his own dripping clothes. With another twitch of his nose, water fell from each clothes item and the clothes looked as dry as ever and he happily started collecting the clothes and pins into the basket. 

Nic was understandably shocked and dropped the glass of sweet tea on the floor, the glass smashing on the linoleum. That night after dinner, he tried to bring up the sight to Abel, but his husband brushed him off again saying the light must have been playing tricks on his eyes and had asked him to pass the popcorn and went back to focusing on the Western him and their sons were watching. 

More and more odd things started to add up---he never saw either Stephen or his husband get the newspaper and yet it was never there in the morning when Nic walked his sons to the bus stop, leaves in the fall were suddenly absent from the Mordos’ lawn even though no one had been out raking them, and the Mordos’ house had been the only one not to lose shingles in a rather harsh thunderstorm that had rolled in and damaged every other house in the neighborhood. 

All the meanwhile, Nic had kept to himself mostly about the affair, even keeping the Mordos themselves at an arm’s distance. Stephen seemed more preoccupied than your average househusband who didn’t have any children yet to look after and he didn’t often calling. Occasionally Karl would come over and bring a cigar and some whiskey to share with Abel but no odd occurrences happened during these visits. When Nic would meet up with the housewives in the neighborhood he would bring up the Mordos but all the women wanted to talk about was how handsome Karl was and how nice their car was. They obviously hadn’t noticed anything weird about the couple. 

Finally came October and with it Halloween. Nic spent weeks sewing his sons’ costumes, a soldier for one and a cowboy for the other and he accompanied them on trick-or-treating. They went in a circular route and that left the Mordos as the last house for them to visit. 

Nic’s boys ran up to the front door, ringing the doorbell excitedly and Nic approached slowly behind. He was focused on the jack-o-lanterns decorating the front yard. They seemed to almost glow with an unnatural light, like there wasn’t a tea light illuminating them like you would expect. 

Before Nic could investigate though, the front door swung open revealing Stephen. He was wearing a floor length black gown, tied at the waist and with long bell sleeves. On top of his head was perched a pointy black hat with a wide brim.  
“Hello Nic,” said Stephen, waving at the man and grabbing the candy bowl for his sons. The two boys grabbed handfuls each before turning and running to their house, excited to check out their respective hauls in their pillowcases. 

“Hey! Say thank you!” yelled Nic after them. A “thank you Mr. Mordo!” was shouted back before they disappeared inside their front door. 

“Little rascals,” sighed Nic. Stephen just laughed. “They seem lovely, I’m quite jealous you know,” said Stephen.

Nic was taken aback a bit for by that, he had spent so much time being jealous of the Mordos, he didn’t think he had anything Stephen could be jealous of. “Well, thank you, but I’m jealous of that costume. You look great. A witch?” 

“Yeah,” said Stephen turning to observe himself in a mirror by the door and straighten his hat, “Karl likes it.”

“It suits you.”

“It does doesn’t it?” said Stephen turning to smile at Nic. 

An awkward silence developed and Nic coughed, “Well I gotta go and make sure those brats don’t eat all of their candy in one sitting and ruin their teeth. I’ll see you around, Stephen.”

“I’m sure you will, Nic.” said Stephen as he closed the door.

Nic couldn’t help but notice that neither of Stephen’s hands were anywhere near the door when it had shut.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a review if you liked it!


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